MANILA, Philippines—Reform-minded presidential aspirants are prepared to rally behind a Noynoy Aquino candidacy, but Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., says unification of the opposition is “as distant as Mars is from Jupiter.”

Moved by Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II’s decision Tuesday to sacrifice his ambitions and give way to Aquino, Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca is now calling on fellow “reformist” aspirants to follow Roxas’ lead.

Padaca, who is being pressed to run for the highest post in the land by the farmers’ group Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka but has not declared her plans, said Wednesday that she had rejected such a call to make way for Aquino.

“After giving up so much, none of us can do less,” Padaca said of Roxas. “He has put so much into this, and yet he has backed out. We can’t even measure up to what he has done. Can we do less?”

But Pimentel, the Senate minority leader, was not too sanguine. “The LP (Liberal Party) isn’t the opposition. Unification is still as distant as Mars is from Jupiter.”

Until Roxas’ announcement of his support for Aquino’s candidacy, nobody thought the reformist candidates could come together, and field a single candidate in what is potentially a crowded presidential race.

Padaca, herself a member of the LP, said the reformist candidates should seize this occasion, and join forces behind Aquino’s candidacy.

“The LP has taken the lead. And the sincerity of Mar should be a magnet for the reformists [to come together] and rally behind Noynoy,” she said in a phone interview. “The fact that Mar gave up a lot for Noynoy should be a factor.”

Aquino magic

The Isabela governor noted that the “Aquino magic”—referring to the popularity of President Corazon Aquino and her assassinated husband Benigno Aquino Jr.—would work better if the reformist candidates came together to back Noynoy’s candidacy.

“The Cory, Ninoy magic, Noynoy doesn’t have that totally. We should allow people to add their magic. And to complete it will be the magic and sacrifice and good intentions of all reformists,” she said. “Many people have magic; let’s put these all together.”

In his Aug. 18 blog, Harvey Keh, who founded the Kaya Natin! movement for good governance with Padaca and Panlilio, among other people, voiced hopes the reformist candidates would be able to field a common slate.

“Imagine if all of these groups can come together, set aside their personal differences, work toward a common vision for a better Philippines and eventually field a common slate for the 2010 elections then I would think we can have a strong fighting chance of finally electing effective, ethical and empowering government leaders for our country,” Keh wrote.

Who is the opposition?

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, an LP stalwart who is aspiring to become vice president, said Roxas’ “sacrifice will strengthen LP.”

“As for uniting the opposition, with all due respect, who is the opposition?” Pangilinan asked, pointing out that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s critics joined forces as the Genuine Opposition in the 2007 elections.

“What happened right after the victory? They all went their own separate ways,” he said. “If unity is to mean anything, it must be for the broadest unity of forces rallying behind an agenda of change and reforms.”

Pangilinan said he was willing to give up his vice presidential ambitions if necessary to “rally all forces committed to genuine change behind Aquino’s campaign.

He called for a “people’s army” that would wage an “electoral revolt against trapo (traditional) politics.”

“It’s not about the opposition and administration, not about them, me or us,” said Sen. Francis Escudero, who is seeking the presidency as standard-bearer of the Nationalist People’s Coalition of businessman Eduardo Cojuangco.

“It’s about you ... the Filipino! It’s about uniting for a common cause for the good of the country,” he said. Escudero commended Roxas for “being selfless for the sake of unity in his party. I wish Noy, Mar and the Liberal Party the very best.”

Villar to slug it out

Former Sen. Ernesto Herrera expected Sen. Manuel Villar, the Nationalista Party standard-bearer, to slug it out with Aquino.

He described Villar as a “credible opponent” whose “track record as an entrepreneur and able leader speaks for itself.”

“Owing to his integrity, Noynoy offers real hope for change, especially in ensuring honest and upright governance, just like his mother,” said Herrera, a former senator who is secretary general of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines.

“What we are witnessing now is the up-and-coming revival of the great rivalry between the LP and the NP, and the renewal of the system of two parties dominating our political affairs,” Herrera said.

He said organized labor was counting on Aquino “to usher in a whole new era of fearless clean governance and trustworthy public service.”

Never underestimate

Malacañang said Roxas’ move strengthened the Liberal Party.

But Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita doubted whether it would translate into victory in the May elections.

“It’s still premature for anyone to ever say yes it’s an assurance because I don’t think it is,” he said.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles, vice chair of the administration Lakas-Kampi CMD, said his party would not dismiss lightly Aquino’s rise.

“In the art of war, you can never underestimate or take your political opponents for granted,” Nograles said. With a report from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.

Still, I am pushing for UP for Noynoy (United Presidentiables for Noynoy). If you want to know why I am enthusiastic of the fact that the mainstream politicians and reformists blocks can unite to rally behind Noynoy, just send me an email. Thanks!

Panlilio made the announcement this morning (Sept. 4) at the historic Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City, saying he has abandoned his presidential ambition to give way to Liberal Party’s Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino.

With the declaration, Panlilio, a priest on leave, became the second presidential aspirant to give up his bid.

Liberal Party president Sen. Mar Roxas made the same announcement last Tuesday. - By Dino Maragay (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)

I actually hope to see "UP for Noynoy" (United Presidentiables for Noynoy) to emerge in the following weeks especially on the opposition front. This may seem ambitious but for the Filipino people, nothing is impossible. I hope you are one with me in this. Convince other presidentiables to rally behind Noynoy if they are really sincere about their desire to serve the Filipino people.

This is the statement of Makati Business Club on the PCIJ Report regarding Pres. Arroyo's wealth. I got this from their website in this page.

PRESS STATEMENTMakati Business Club Statement on the PCIJ Report on President Arroyo's Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth

14 August 2009 - We wish to commend the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism for a job well done on its three-part series on President Arroyo’s still-to-be-explained wealth. The press serves a watchdog function and, disagreeable as it may be to those who have suffered its nasty bite, we must allow the press to perform this function, without coercion or threats.

It now behooves the President to personally respond to the issues raised by the PCIJ article. It is unfortunate that instead of clarifying matters, the President has opted to call in her legal advisers who have tried to attack the message as well as the messenger rather than respond in any meaningful and germane manner.

In particular, the business community would be particularly interested in the remarkable growth of Mrs. Arroyo’s net worth during her incumbency as a government employee from 1992 to 2008, when her personal wealth increased from P6.73 million to P143.54 million, according to the PCIJ account. That equates to a compounded growth of 21.1% per annum, wherein her net worth doubled every 3.4 years. Her stock portfolio, meanwhile, grew by 41% per annum from P55 million in 2006 to P110 million in 2008, at a time when the Philippine Stock Exchange index fell by 21%.

Held against the light of economic reality and the First Couple’s declared assets and income sources, the impressive growth of Mrs. Arroyo’s wealth is difficult to fathom. Through her lawyer, the President has stated that she stands by the “truth and veracity” of her SALN, but it is difficult to accept her statement at face value if all that she has to substantiate her claim is the paltry information provided in the document and her spokespersons’ explanations that only lead to more unanswered questions.

Like Caesar’s wife, the President must be above suspicion. As the highest public servant in our country and in the interest of good governance, Mrs. Arroyo must set an example by making a full and transparent accounting of her and her family’s wealth. She owes the Filipino people an explanation.

“At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom.

So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago in Appomatox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.”

This was the introductory lines of the Right to Vote speech of former US President Lyndon Johnson in Congress more than four decades ago. In the second paragraph, the three of the most important junctures in the history of the United States are listed. In Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, the first military resistance of the colonists against the British happened during the American Revolution. In the Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, commander in chief of Union forces. In Selma, Alabama in the 1960s, a major black voter registration drive led by Martin Luther King, Jr. was held where he also encountered violent opposition. And just this November 4, 2008, another turning point in US history happened. A large majority of Americans believed that “Change has come to America” and voted to office the first ever black President of the country, Barack Hussein Obama. Yes, it was history.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that he cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. But with the election of Obama, I am pretty sure he will be more than just satisfied now. Millions of Negroes around the world and members of other nations rejoiced with what happened in the US elections, many of them shed tears. But who could be happier than with the African-Americans in the US? The history of black Americans has been a struggle for their existence first as humans and later on as citizens of the United Sates with full civil and political rights. They started as goods brought to America to serve as slaves by the colonists at the time when the thirteen original states were still part of British colonies. They continued to fight it out until Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation emancipating them from slavery. However, the battle did not end there.

Although they were recognized as humans after the civil war, their rights as Americans were not fully recognized in many of the states. Again, the fight was not easy but they came out triumphant with perhaps two of the most important of the Affirmative Actions, the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act in 1960s. The former banned discrimination in public accommodations, educational institutions and employment and the latter essentially prohibits the denial of the right to vote because of color. However, another attempt to step forward in empowering black Americans did not push through when Jesse Jackson failed to get the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and in 1988. But the wait was not long for them when two decades after, a young and charismatic junior senator from Illinois earned the democratic nomination. Because of the failures of Republicans in wars abroad and economic management, this fifth ever black senator easily defeated his counterpart John McCain, an ultraconservative Republican, in the 2008 presidential election. The dream of King, the hope of Jackson and the aspiration of millions of other Americans came into reality. Certainly, Obama’s election to office was the highlight of the long struggle for equal rights and protection of the African Americans.

For many, the victory of Obama was the victory of the African Americans only. The white Americans maybe unaware of this but his election was also their liberation from hundreds of years of hypocrisy and pretense. The founding fathers, all of them white and under oppression by British authorities, aspired, fought for and later on established a free America through the magnificent words of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution. However, in the following decades most of the whites remained untruthful and inconsistent to the founding principles and ideals of their republic. The black Americans have not gained full citizenship rights and achieved racial equality. The slavery. The lynching. The violence. The harassments. The school segregation. The bus segregation. The discrimination. The denial of rights. These are all told by history and these are all manifestations of the failure of Americans to rise up and live out to the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' Once in history, they deprived the members of the black minority of civil and political rights through institutionalized discrimination, like denial of access to public accommodations, and extralegal means like harassments and violence. Although there were recognition of shortcomings on their part and corrected these mistakes later on, color has become still an important factor for giving opportunities in the political process. Today, only five black Americans, including Obama, had served in the history of Senate. Obama was the only black in history who became a standard bearer of a major political party. Thus, the result of the latest presidential election showed that the white Americans and the rest of the members of American majority have embedded in their selves the true essence of their struggle for the dignity of man and for the destiny of democracy.

His election was the highest meaning of the of the powerful words of Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the founding fathers; was the entire significance of the aim of Abraham Lincoln and the rest of the abolitionists; was the full realization of the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the rest of the civil rights movements; and was the complete truth of the hope of Jesse Jackson and the rest of African Americans. Referring to racial discrimination and inequality during his time, Pres. Johnson stated in the same the Right to Vote speech:

“There is no Northern problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Negro problem. There is only an American problem.”

Yes, indeed, the triumph of Obama can be seen as the triumph of history for it is the most apparent sign of the eradication of that American problem.

Million times before I attempted to create my own blog site and million times I failed to (with little exaggeration). I hope I hit it this time. Actually, this is the fourth blog site that I made and I am now willed to have this one as my default blog and the rest serve as part of history. Please read my side notes on the different political and social issues.

"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." — Voltaire